The Chennai High Court has ordered the DGP to provide armed police protection to retired IAS officer Sagayam.
In a petition filed before the Chennai High Court, voluntary retirement IAS officer Sagayam stated, ‘When I was the District Collector of Madurai district, the High Court appointed me as the commissioner to investigate the granite irregularities. Based on the High Court’s order, after conducting the inquiry, I submitted a report to the High Court stating that the government had suffered a loss of Rs. 1 lakh 11 thousand crore due to the illegal quarrying of granite stones. Based on this report, the case is being heard in the Madurai Special Court.
Police protection that had been provided since 2014 as per the High Court’s order was withdrawn in 2023. Since the protection was withdrawn, I have been unable to appear in court and give testimony as a witness in the granite irregularities case. As threats continue, I had requested that my application seeking continued protection be considered and that police protection be provided again,’ he had said.
This case came up for hearing before Judge G.K. Ilanthiraiyan on Monday. At that time, on the side of Sahayam, the security was withdrawn without any prior notice. Therefore, it was argued that an order should be issued to provide him security again. On the Tamil Nadu government’s side, it was stated that the petition filed by the petitioner seeking security is under consideration by the review committee.
After hearing arguments from both sides, the judge ordered the Tamil Nadu DGP to provide police protection to retired IAS officer Sagayam, who goes to courts to give testimony in cases related to granite irregularities, with at least one armed police officer. The judge also directed the review committee to issue appropriate orders regarding providing police protection to the petitioner and disposed of the case.
